Convention Boss's Other Hat: Lobbying G.O.P. for Defense Clients

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

Published: August 21, 2004

For more than a year David Norcross has been a key player for the Bush-Cheney campaign in organizing the Republican National Convention. Mr. Norcross has hired the convention's chief executive, headed the committee responsible for guiding decisions on everything from transportation to entertainment and helped make arrangements for the delegations coming to New York.

But Mr. Norcross wears more than one hat.

At the same time that he has held this inside-the-party position with access to top government officials, he has also been lobbying the Bush administration on behalf of clients like Raytheon, the defense contractor. Mr. Norcross lobbied the Department of Defense, the Department of the Treasury, the Senate and the House, all on behalf of Raytheon, while he has been the chairman of the convention, according to records on file with the secretary of the Senate.

There is nothing illegal about Mr. Norcross taking on both jobs at the same time, especially since his role at the convention is a party position, not a government one. In the past, party chairmen with far greater access to the White House than Mr. Norcross, including the former Republican National Committee chairman, Haley Barbour, and the onetime Democratic National Committee chairman, Ron Brown, have also simultaneously been affiliated with lobbying firms.

But Mr. Norcross's dual roles come after Congress has sought to limit corporate influence in politics with stiffer campaign finance laws. But those laws have had the unintended effect of exaggerating the already considerable influence of corporate interests in the Democratic and Republican conventions.

''Look, this is how this system works,'' said Fred Wertheimer, executive director of Democracy 21, a Washington-based group that helped push through changes to the campaign finance laws. ''These conventions are the oasis, the last remaining watering hole. They are the ultimate mixer for office holders, lobbyists, corporate and other special interests and big money guys.''

And within that environment, Mr. Norcross works at the highest level as a lobbyist representing companies like Boeing and the biotechnology company 20/20 GeneSystems Inc., which is based in Rockville, Md. Mr. Norcross's employer, the Washington-based law firm Blank Rome and its lobbying subsidiary, highlights his party credential in Mr. Norcross's official biography posted on its Web site.

''Mr. Norcross is a member of the board of directors of Blank Rome Government Relations L.L.C., and was recently appointed chairman of the Republican National Convention's Committee on Arrangements for the 2004 Republican National Convention, to be held in New York City,'' the company Web site says. ''His practice focuses on legislative affairs, legislative and executive department liaison, lobbying, advocacy programs and public affairs.''

While such mingling of politics and lobbying has been de rigueur, in recent years some have tried to avoid even the suggestion of any kind of conflict. Ed Gillespie, for example, the chairman of the R.N.C., said he would stop working with his Washington lobbying firm when he took over the party. And William Harris, the man Mr. Norcross hired as chief executive of the convention, also stopped lobbying while working on the convention, a spokesman said.

''The mores have progressed to the point where it makes people uncomfortable,'' said Stanley Brand, a Washington-based lawyer who has counseled lawmakers on ethics. ''It's not against the law but it brings criticism to people.''

Mr. Norcross is a longtime political insider who ran unsuccessfully in New Jersey for the United States Senate, has been counsel to the Republican National Committee and is a national committeeman from New Jersey. He refused repeated requests to be interviewed. Leonardo Alcivar, a spokesman for the convention, said Mr. Norcross was too busy with the convention to speak about his job. Mr. Alcivar also said Mr. Norcross was working only part-time on the convention, and was spending the rest of his days in his lobbying firm's New York office.

''The chairman serves as a part-time volunteer to the convention without pay,'' Mr. Alcivar said. ''His private sector work is fully disclosed. He is working hard on behalf of the Republican Party and our convention is lucky to have him.''

Mr. Norcross has not been shy about speaking about his dual roles in the past.

''Through it all, I will have some involvement with some of my clients,'' Mr. Norcross was quoted as saying in a recent issue of Influence Magazine, an independent nonpartisan publication that focuses on lobbying and recently described him as a lobbyist working the convention. ''A lot of what I do, I can do on the telephone.''

In his convention role, Mr. Norcross is chairman of the Committee on Arrangements, effectively a subsidiary of the Republican National Committee. This committee receives the $15 million federal grant that is used to help pay for the convention and it spends whatever the local host committee for the convention raises -- which in this case is expected to exceed $65 million.

Since his appointment in the spring of 2003, Mr. Norcross has overseen the 14 subcommittees set up to help set the tone and direction of the convention, and, records show, Mr. Norcross has spent thousands of tax dollars to cover his own expenses working on the convention, including spending listed on federal disclosure forms as transportation and ''meetings and events.''

The Democratic National Committee did not create a separate committee for its convention last month in Boston. It hired a staff to work in Boston, and the national committee accepted the $15 million itself. The Democrats appointed as their chairwoman Alice Huffman, president of the California State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She received a salary for her work, convention officials said.

Steven Leventhal, a lawyer from Long Island and an expert in government ethics, said that generally speaking the nature of Mr. Norcross's two jobs do not necessarily present him with a conflict of interest but could present the government officials he is serving politically -- and then lobbying -- with a potential conflict.

''Of course,'' Mr. Leventhal said, ''it is improper for a government official to take official action based upon the official's personal interests rather than the public interest. And so the question arises here, whether these relationships raise that specter.''

Photo: David Norcross, a lobbyist at Blank Rome, is also chairman of the G.O.P. convention's organizing committee. (Photo by Roberto Westbrook)(pg. B4)